My UNIX WorkStation Collection

Silicon Graphics INDY codenamed " Guinness" serial number 08006909576C (c. 1994)

This computer was advertised on TradeMe as being in "near new" condition, November 2009. I've always been cautious of the often absurdly optimistic way used items are described in this corner of the world but since I've always wanted an Indy and pickup was only a 2 hour drive away, I bid on it with the intent to win. I knew this computer would make a great addition to my collection if it was as-described, and I would be able to view it before paying.

Needless to say I was delighted to find out that the teenager selling it on behalf of his father was not exaggerating at all, and it really was in near-new condition. He told me his father paid around NZ$100,000 for it new and used it for industrial design. The auction had closed at $101 and included not only the essential proprietary mouse and keyboard, but also the matching 20" Sony cylindrical-Trinitron monitor and the unique "IndyCAM."

Once home and lugged up the stairs (no easy feat with the very heavy monitor) I found it didn't even need cleaning - I couldn't find dust or grime anywhere, even between the keyboard keys - and trust me, I'm fussy! The system looked brand new other than some light corrosion on galvanized surfaces. The next task was to fire it up and see what happened. It powered-up fine but I needed a root password to get in. Several emails to the previous owner did not produce a reply so I next figured out how to back up the disk in case I screwed it up. I had no idea what software was on the machine but as I had no OS disks I did not want to end up loosing the original install.

Fortunately I had an identical hard disk to the one installed and was able to clone it using Ubuntu Linux on a PC. After a few false starts I resolved the password issue by copying the /etc/passwd file onto a floppy using the guest account and running a brute-force cracking program called "John the Ripper" on my PC laptop. To my amazement, in two minutes I had the root account password "lp250". I deleted the only user account password present and subsequently found little of interest on the machine outside of the standard install of IRIX 6.2.

This example has the MIPS R4400SC 175 Mhz (1MB Sec Cache) processor, 128 MB memory, and XL24 graphics - which means a non-accelerated 24-bit frame buffer. I've never been a great fan of the bizarre industrial design of Silicon Graphics products but in person the highly-tactile finish adds a lot to the impression.

The first hardware mod was to re-wire the power supply fan to run all the time. Thankfully this example has the better Sony power supply but it seems that the fan never runs - allowing the computer internals to get very hot. I wired the fan to the hard disk's 12 VDC supply - via a resistor to reduce the fan noise.

Other than that, all I've managed to do is install Doom 1 on it (without sound, as there is no MIDI emulation on the Indy) and backup the hard disk to my Sun / Exabyte DAT tape drive. Thanks to a relative with SGI machines, I was able to procure various OS CDs for a future use.

The Silicon Graphics Indy was codenamed "Guinness" and member of the IP24 machine architecture range. According to Wiki it was released for sale in July 1993. Wired magazine quotes the starting price at US$5,000 but it evidently cost a lot more to get one in a useful form.